What good is a wall of protection that has a hole in it? How will it keep anyone out? Isn't a wall with a breach in it as bad as salt that has lost it's flavor? It has become useless for it's intended purpose.

In the bible God talks about a "hedge of protection". When I first heard the words I as any good American, pictured  a bunch of trimmed hedges surrounding a person or a place (not very fortified...you can just step over a hedge right?). I eventually looked up the word and it's definition in the Hebrew language from the time that it was written. It turns out that a hedge was a wall. A vineyard for example, would have a hedge built around it. Many times there would be thick thorny briers placed on top of the high wall. Not only was it difficult to climb, but if you did manage to get to the top, the briers like a natural barbed wire, would keep you from getting over the wall.

God mentions a hedge of protection in the book of Job when Satan is proposing all of the reasons why Job remains faithful to God. He suggests that God take the hedge away and see how thankful his servant Job would be then.

"Does Job fear God for nothing? Satan replied. Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has and he will surely curse you to your face." - Job 1:9-11

Just in case you haven't read the story, Job still doesn't curse God, but because the hedge of protection has been removed, his children and his flocks are killed, and great illness befalls him...every good blessing gets attacked.

When God chose Israel to be a nation set apart and Holy, he put a hedge around them as a nation. He qualified that "if" they remained obedient to His ways they would thrive. They fell away and eventually God took their hedge away and they were held captive by the Assyrians.

When we stray from God as the Israelites did, God tries to bring us to repentance, but in our pride and rebellion we move further and further from His truth and His ways.

God appointed watchmen to warn Nations of their rebellion, he sent prophets, and eventually He sent His Son. Many continue to rebel. Many have chosen to live outside of God's protection. God sent a new hedge...a perfect protection...a covering that is impenetrable...He sent Jesus.

We each have a huge hole in our hedges...a breach of bricks blown away by our sin. Anything can easily get through that broken place and we are vulnerable to attack. But there is wonderful news!...God sent His son to cover us. The Holy perfect blood of Jesus is our hedge, our impenetrable wall of protection. By accepting Christ as Lord we are able to once again be safe from the enemy. Christ keeps us until His return.

There is a gap in the wall of our Nation as well...God looks for those willing to stand in that gap and pray. He looks for even one, not wanting any to perish. (Ezekiel 22)

God is forever giving us chances to get right with Him...He relentlessly pursues His lost ones with love and kindness. Those who have turned from Him are still the love of His heart and He wants to bless them. But God will not bless forever. The day will come for judgement. Only those who stand within the protection of Christ will be able to stand - not for anything that we have done other than to accept and declare His reign over our lives. The choice to acknowledge Christ as our only refuge is indeed our "only refuge".


When we begin to trust in our own abilities, the bricks of God's protective wall begin to loosen. As we begin to take pride in our own accomplishments forgetting God who has given us every resource and ability, the bricks begin to fall. When our pride cuts us off from relationship with God, our bricks lay piled on the ground, having left a damaging hole in the wall left open for any one who wants to to enter. We stand fully vulnerable to attack.

People, there is an enemy of our souls. There is a war going on for our lives. There is a need for protection. Are you standing inside a broken wall, believing that you are secure?...You are not. Your life requires the perfect protection of Jesus, the only protection from the enemy.


In the book of Nehemiah the people began to rebuild the fallen wall of their captive Nation. "Above the horse gate the priests made repairs, each in front of his own house." - Nehemiah 3:28 (each man repaired his own part of the wall and eventually the wall for the entire Nation was repaired) We are each responsible for our own brokenness - as we become whole...so does the Nation.

Does your hedge look like the picture in this post?...Or are you securely covered by Christ...